South Wales Police
Forensic assessment · v1.1.0 · updated 1 November 2026
Translation pending: the assessment text below is in English, the authoritative record.
- Response status
- Asked for clarification or fee → Replied, nothing disclosed
- Last contact
- 31 October 2026
- Next date on file
- None on file
- Earlier version
- v1.0.1, published 20 October 2026 on the Legal Wiki
Since last assessment
18 October 2026 to 1 November 2026
Our reading: Since 18 October 2026, 16 emails are on file: 7 sent, 9 received (2 with content, 7 automatic acknowledgements). The latest reply moves the response status from “Asked for clarification or fee” to “Replied, nothing disclosed”. Most material: 21 October 2026, received, correspondence (no disclosure): The force responds to request 1189/26 (a preservation notice) by setting out the FOIA section 8 tests for a valid request; no information is provided (response PDF text included). Nothing here changes the earlier current finding unless stated above; this is a log of contact, not a finding about any person.
- Receivedcorrespondence (no disclosure)
The force responds to request 1189/26 (a preservation notice) by setting out the FOIA section 8 tests for a valid request; no information is provided (response PDF text included).
- Sentchase
The requester follows up on 1188/26, FOI 1264/26, FOI 719/26.
- Sentchase
The requester follows up on 1040/26, 1188/26, FOI 1040/26.
- Sentchase
The requester follows up on 1188/26, 1189/26, FOI 1040/26.
- Sentchase
The requester follows up on 1188/26, FOI 1040/26, FOI 1189/26.
- Receivedotherref 1188/26 (review of 719/26)
Internal review response 1188/26 sent as a redacted PDF with the review procedure; the PDF is password-protected and no password has been supplied, so its contents are not read.
- Sentclarification givenref 1264/26
Further search terms for FOI 1264/26 (operational records, Nov-Dec 1988).
- Sentclarification givenref 719/26
Further search terms for FOI 719/26: historical and descriptive names for the farm.
- Sentclarification givenref 1188/26
Internal review 1188/26: the redacted response PDF of 26 Oct 2026 is password-protected and no password came with it; asks for the password or an unlocked copy.
7 automatic acknowledgements
Automatic acknowledgement of the internal review email.
Automatic acknowledgement of the email on 1040/26.
Automatic acknowledgement of the email on 1189/26.
- FOI 1264/26
Automatic acknowledgement from the South Wales Police FOI team for FOI 1264/26 (non-personal operational records), warning of a backlog and possible delay beyond 20 working days.
- FOI 1264/26
Automatic receipt for the nomenclature supplement; the FOI team warns of a backlog and possible delays beyond 20 working days.
- 719/26
Automatic receipt of the 719/26 follow-up, with a warning that a high volume of requests and a backlog may delay replies beyond 20 working days.
- 1188/26
Automatic acknowledgement (bilingual) of the 31 Oct 2026 email on internal review 1188/26; no content.
The assessment as last published
Carried over unchanged from v1.0.1 (20 October 2026). Links point inside this site.
Email dialogue evidence: every email exchanged with South Wales Police about Great House Farm is catalogued word for word, by thread and date, at South Wales Police — Email Correspondence Catalogue (continued in Part 2 and Part 3).
Chronology and catalogue links — assessed 10-10-2026: Use the Institutional Involvement Roadmap (1877–2026) for the date-ordered institution/people/evidence sequence. The reported 1988 Cadw-to-Minister spot-listing letter has its own catalogue placeholder at GHF-E152; the original has not been attached to that page as at 10-10-2026. A placeholder records an evidence gap; it does not establish the letter’s contents or misconduct.
Forensic Assessment — South Wales Police
Scope: policing records connected with the eviction/demolition episode and later reporting; not civil title adjudication.
Current evidence
The project has a confirmed negative FOI outcome under reference 719/26. That is a search result, not proof that no historic operational record ever existed. 🕒10-10-2026
Forensic control test
Identify the specific incident, operational record class, command/force area, retention rule and any transferred or destroyed records. Separate police operational decisions from the civil court authority under which possession was enforced.
Current finding
As at 10-10-2026, the material reviewed does not establish policing misconduct. This is not a finding that the historic police role or every operational act has been established or excluded. The current work concerns historical-record recovery and the evidential status of reports/footage about the 1988 episode.
Human action
Seek the search methodology and retention/disposal explanation behind FOI 719/26, and cross-check any surviving court warrant, press footage or contemporaneous account before alleging operational excess.
Acceptance: a defensible police-record search/retention trail and any relevant incident references are logged.
Cross-institution records route: the NPCC’s September–October 2026 correspondence searched accessible national/ACPO holdings and referred the requester toward individual police forces; it does not substitute for this force’s local operational records search. Compare the NPCC forensic assessment, especially GHF-E106-R49 and GHF-E106-R51, with South Wales Police’s own FOI 719/26 record (R38) and the linked press evidence below. A national nil return and a local nil return are separate searches.
South Wales Police — chronological evidence map
This map separates the date of the event from the date/type of the source. Newspaper reports are evidence of what was reported, not automatic proof of every reported detail; testimony of named family members is labelled separately and linked to their Testimony pages. Select each source title to open the evidence page.
| Event / record date | Appearance documented | Direct source and qualification |
|---|---|---|
| 29 April 1988 (event date inferred from contemporary report dated/circa 30 April) | First bailiff eviction attempt. A press report states five bailiffs and around 15 police officers attended; a South Wales Police spokesperson is reported as saying officers were there to prevent a breach of the peace, not to assist bailiffs. | GHF-E090-N07 — “Chainsaw farmer vows to fight on”. The newspaper title/date is approximate; the article states “yesterday” about the events. |
| 30 April 1988 (publication date; same incident, not necessarily a second deployment) | South Wales Echo search extract reports a dozen police officers were on the farm as bailiffs tried to evict the family. This is a short archive search-result extract, not the complete article. | GHF-E090-N15-02 — South Wales Echo extract · search-extract evidence page. |
| September 2026 (Branwen’s recollection recorded then) | Branwen’s recollection of the November 1988 removal, Sep 2026 (GHF-E114; Branwen testimony), states the men detaining her appeared to be soldiers. It does not identify them as South Wales Police, and the account remains uncorroborated. | GHF-E114 — Branwen testimony. Contextual lead only; not evidence of SWP deployment. 🕒10-10-2026 |
| 16 July 2026 (FOI response) | South Wales Police reports no information held for the requested period 1900–1993 about police attendance at, or support for bailiffs at, the property. 🕒10-10-2026 | Reply register R38 — FOI 719/26. A nil return concerns records held/search results; it does not erase the contemporary press reports. |
| 29 September 2026 (FOI response) | South Wales Police states it does not hold the requested information about named individuals. | Reply register R39 — FOI 1040/26. |
| 29–30 September 2026 (SAR administration) | Additional subject-access correspondence is recorded, but its personal-data contents are not reproduced on the public Wiki. | R12 · R46. Procedural appearance only; not substantive evidence about 1988 conduct. |
Unresolved boundary: the current published material still lacks the local force’s underlying 1988 operational, incident, custody and deployment records. The late-November possession and demolition reports should not be used to infer police attendance unless a specific source identifies the officers or force. The national NPCC search is a separate records route; compare the NPCC forensic assessment. 🕒10-10-2026
Records-access register appearances — direct row links
Rows below match the institution’s name or an alias in the reply register’s sender/reference or recorded description. A match shows an appearance in the records trail, not necessarily an act by this institution.
| Date | Correspondence / register item (click to open) | Reading rule |
|---|---|---|
| 16 Jul 2026 | R38 — South Wales Police FOI. 719/26 . | Register row contains a name/alias match; inspect the linked row to distinguish sender, recipient and incidental mention. |
| 29 Sep 2026 | R12 — South Wales Police, subject access team. | Register row contains a name/alias match; inspect the linked row to distinguish sender, recipient and incidental mention. |
| 29 Sep 2026 | R39 — South Wales Police FOI. 1040/26 . | Register row contains a name/alias match; inspect the linked row to distinguish sender, recipient and incidental mention. |
| 30 Sep 2026 | R46 — South Wales Police, SAR concerning the 20 Aug 2026 request | Register row contains a name/alias match; inspect the linked row to distinguish sender, recipient and incidental mention. |
Related navigation: FOI & Public-Authority Reply Register · Records Access Chronology · Evidence Library
Page version & change log
Current version: 1.0.1
| Version | Date (UTC) | Editor (human or agent name) | Change | Source / evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0.1 | 2026-10-20T22:01Z | the editors | Surname removed from Branwen’s name in our own text (first name only, public naming rule). Quoted documents and correspondence unchanged. Nothing else changed. | Public naming rule / Master Change Log (3923) |
| 1.0.0 | 2026-10-18T15:29Z | the editors | Footer standardised; earlier log rows carried into this table; no content change | Editing Protocol, 18 Oct 2026 |
| 2026-10-18 (rollout date; exact time not separately recorded) | OpenAI-assisted maintenance agent (GPT-6) | Installed this page-local append-only change log and agent instructions. Existing page content was not intentionally rewritten. | User-directed site-wide changelog standard. Saved via WordPress API; public rendering of this page not yet independently checked. |
Agents and editors: follow the Editing Protocol.
Case file
This file is built for a future reparations claim. Facts are as the records show them; interpretation is labelled “our reading”. Items marked “not checked” have not been compared with the original record.
(a) Conduct timeline
34 dated interactions, oldest first; 20 automatic acknowledgements are left out. Quotations are verbatim from the institution’s email; where the reply’s substance was an attachment, the email subject is quoted instead.
Show the timeline
| Date | Direction | Reference | Type | Verbatim |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 May 2026 | received | LPB/26/0781 | redirected elsewhere | Subject: Our Reference: LPB/26/0781 |
| 20 May 2026 | received | LPB/26/0781 | redirected elsewhere | Subject: Our Reference: LPB/26/0781 |
| 29 May 2026 | received | — | redirected elsewhere | Subject: Automatic reply: FORMAL DISCLOSURE NOTICE & LITIGATION HOLD: Historic Significance, Planning Approvals, and Displaced Family Tenancy Records for Great House Far |
| 29 May 2026 | received | — | redirected elsewhere | Subject: RE: FORMAL DISCLOSURE NOTICE & LITIGATION HOLD: Historic Significance, Planning Approvals, and Displaced Family Tenancy Records for Great House Farm, Llandough |
| 7 June 2026 | sent | — | request | Subject: FOI/EIR Request – 1988 Police/Bailiff Involvement in Dispossession at Great House Farm (Ty Mawr), Llandough (Ref: Buckler/Williams Family, BP Properties) |
| 16 July 2026 | received | 719/26 | not held | South Wales Police provides you the right to request a re-examination of your case under its review procedure (copy attached). |
| 2 August 2026 | sent | 719/26 | chase | Subject: Follow-up – FOI Request 719/26 (Great House Farm / 1988 Dispossession) |
| 7 August 2026 | received | 719/26 | correspondence | Please could you provide me with a contact number so that I can call you to offer some explanation. |
| 7 August 2026 | sent | 719/26 | owner’s account; date confirmed from correspondence | Reply the same day giving a contact number (number withheld here) and inviting a message to be left. |
| 20 August 2026 | sent | — | request | Subject: Freedom of Information Request – Records relating to the deaths of William Buckler (1990) and [name] (1983) |
| 16 September 2026 | sent | 719/26 | owner’s account; date confirmed from correspondence | Asked whether a voice message had been left; none was found; asked for replies by email. |
| 17 September 2026 | received | 719/26 | correspondence | I do not have a contact number for you, so I have not left any message. |
| 17 September 2026 | sent | 719/26 | owner’s account; date confirmed from correspondence | Reply pointing to the 7 August email that carried the contact number. |
| 17 September 2026 | owner | 719/26 | owner’s account | Owner’s account: the police said they would phone; later they said no contact number had been left, although it had been. Date to be confirmed from correspondence — the emails of 7 August and 17 September 2026 above match this account. |
| 27 September 2026 | sent | 719/26 | internal review request | Subject: Internal review of 719/26 (no records held) and overdue request of 20 August 2026 — Great House Farm, Llandough, 1988 |
| 28 September 2026 | sent | — | request | Subject: Subject access, crime-recording request, and search note on 719/26 — Great House Farm, Llandough, 1988 |
| 29 September 2026 | received | 1040/26 | not held | South Wales Police provides you the right to request a re-examination of your case under its review procedure (copy attached). |
| 29 September 2026 | received | — | fee or clarification demand | Subject: Subject Access Request |
| 29 September 2026 | sent | — | clarification given | Subject: Re: Subject Access Request |
| 30 September 2026 | received | — | fee or clarification demand | Before we search our systems to locate your requests, would you please be able to provide more information on your request you stated was made on 20/08/2026 regarding the death of 2 individuals? |
| 10 October 2026 | sent | — | request | Subject: FOI/EIR request — non-personal operational records concerning Great House Farm / Tŷ Mawr, Llandough, November–December 1988 |
| 13 October 2026 | received | FOI 1264/26 | fee or clarification demand | Please search the relevant South Wales Constabulary / predecessor-force and successor holdings, including any transferred records available to the Force, for existing non-personal records that refer to the site or the events associated with its possession and demolition. |
| 13 October 2026 | sent | FOI 1264/26 | clarification given | Subject: RE: FOI 1264/26 - non-personal operational records concerning Great House Farm / Tŷ Mawr, Llandough, November–December 1988 |
| 13 October 2026 | sent | FOI 1264/26 | clarification given | Subject: Re: FOI 1264/26 - non-personal operational records concerning Great House Farm / Tŷ Mawr, Llandough, November–December 1988 |
| 16 October 2026 | sent | FOI 1264/26 | preservation notice | Subject: Re: FOI 1264/26 - non-personal operational records concerning Great House Farm / Tŷ Mawr, Llandough, November–December 1988 |
| 21 October 2026 | received | — | correspondence (no disclosure) | Section 1(1)(a) is the duty to confirm or deny that the requested information is held, and Section 1(1)(b) is to the duty to communicate the requested information to the applicant. |
| 21 October 2026 | sent | — | chase | Subject: Re: Internal Review 1188/26 of FOI 719/26 |
| 21 October 2026 | sent | — | chase | Subject: Re: RESPONSE Freedom of Information 1040/26 |
| 21 October 2026 | sent | — | chase | Subject: Re: RESPONSE Freedom of Information 1189/26 |
| 21 October 2026 | sent | — | chase | Subject: Re: Subject Access Request |
| 26 October 2026 | received | 1188/26 (review of 719/26) | other | South Wales Police provides you the right to request a re-examination of your case under its review procedure (copy attached). |
| 29 October 2026 | sent | 1264/26 | clarification given | Subject: RE: FOI 1264/26 - non-personal operational records concerning Great House Farm / Tŷ Mawr, Llandough, November–December 1988 |
| 29 October 2026 | sent | 719/26 | clarification given | Subject: Follow-up – FOI Request 719/26 (Great House Farm / 1988 Dispossession) |
| 31 October 2026 | sent | 1188/26 | clarification given | Subject: Re: RESPONSE Freedom of Information Request 1188/26 |
(b) Inconsistencies and gaps
“Not held” answers set against the duty below
- 16 July 2026: “not held” answer (ref 719/26): States South Wales Police holds no information relating to the request about bailiff attendance, eviction, and related matters.
- 29 September 2026: “not held” answer (ref 1040/26): States South Wales Police does not hold information relating to named individuals requested.
Missed deadlines
- 3 July 2026: Statutory deadline 3 July 2026 for the request of 7 June 2026: missed (no reply by deadline).
- 18 September 2026: Statutory deadline 18 September 2026 for the request of 20 August 2026: missed (no reply by deadline).
Promises not kept
- 17 September 2026: Discrepancy in the force’s own correspondence (ref 719/26): on 7 August 2026 the force asked for a contact number in order to phone; a number was supplied the same day; on 17 September 2026 the force wrote that it had no contact number and had left no message. Owner’s account matches these emails; dates confirmed from the correspondence.
(c) Quarantined-name links
Records on the quarantine register (Kissed Frogs) that sit in, or came from, this institution’s holdings. None is treated as settled.
No quarantined-name record on the register is linked to this institution’s holdings.
(d) Duty and liability — our reading
Liability indicators (our reading): strong
- Duty
- FOIA 2000; Data Protection Act 2018 (Part 3 for law-enforcement data, UK GDPR Art. 15 for subject access); the Management of Police Information code and APP on retention and review of records.
- Indicators the duty was not met
- a discrepancy in its own correspondence; missed statutory deadlines; “not held” answers.
- Evidence still needed to confirm
- the institution’s retention schedule and disposal record for the series in question; the catalogue or file list it searched; any internal review or complaint outcome.
- Likely extent of exposure if confirmed
- A records-management or complaint finding; correspondence that is inconsistent with its own earlier messages goes to handling, and wider exposure depends on what the records, once found, show.
(e) Evidence still needed
- Inspect any retained occurrence books, station logs or weekly orders that the force or the county archive holds for the period. for paid visit list
- Check, in person, the series that would hold what the 16 July 2026 answer covers. for paid visit list
- Check, in person, the series that would hold what the 29 September 2026 answer covers. for paid visit list
Versions
| 1.1.0 | 2026-11-01 | Moved to the Forensic Assessments webapp; dated “Since last assessment” section added; response status re-read. |
| 1.0.1 | 2026-10-20 | As published on the Legal Wiki. |